GAME? WTF?_BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Vice President Dick Cheney arrived unannounced in Baghdad early Wednesday to tell Iraq's government "it's game time," a senior Bush administration official said.
The senior administration official summarized Cheney's message: "We've got to pull together. We've got to get this work done. It's game time."
An important topic on Cheney's agenda is to persuade the Iraqi Parliament to forgo its planned two-month recess. The Bush administration is pushing for members to keep working on legislation, such as a measure on oil revenues.
"The reality is, with the major effort we're making, the major effort the Iraqi security forces and military are making themselves, for the Iraqi Parliament to take a two-month vacation in the middle of summer is impossible to understand," Ryan Crocker, the United States' new ambassador to Iraq, told reporters.
The trip to Baghdad -- Cheney's second -- comes as the Bush administration is trying to foster national unity among the fractious Iraqi leaders.
Shortly after landing, Cheney met with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. He told reporters the two discussed political and economic issues and how to build an Iraq that is "self-governing and free of threats of the insurgency and al Qaeda."
Al-Maliki said they worked to chart the "best ways to support the efforts of the Iraqi government in order to succeed in this experiment."
Cheney also met with Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, who briefed him on the effectiveness of the U.S. military buildup, The Associated Press reported.
The vice president also saw Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and government ministers, but no details were offered about that meeting.
Cheney also plans to visit with U.S. troops, a White House statement said.
Vice president to visit Sunni countries
The stopover kicks off a weeklong visit to the region, where Cheney will hold talks with leaders in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan -- all Sunni Arab countries.
The trip closely follows Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's participation in a two-day international conference on Iraq in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. It also comes a little over a week after Bush's decision to veto a $124 billion war spending bill that called for U.S. troops to leave Iraq by 2008.
Another political crisis likely discussed on Cheney's visit is the threat posed by the country's most powerful Sunni bloc to bolt from Parliament and erode the country's effort to establish a unity government.
Cheney is slated to meet with the bloc's leader Tariq al-Hashimi -- one of Iraq's two vice presidents.
Al-Maliki, a Shiite, met with al-Hashimi on Tuesday. The sitdown apparently eased the tension that would have prompted the Sunnis to split from the Council of Representatives, which could be a devastating blow to reconciliation.
cnn.com
someone please tell this is NOT A GAME! |
